Titanic mementoes for sale: The items include a letter detailing the graphic account of the body recovery mission and a 1903 carving of Cpt Edward Smith

Mrs Dean was given the wicker suitcase and its contents by the people of New York as they had lost all their possessions and money in the sinking.

Miss Dean, a spinster who lives at the Woodlands Ridge nursing home in Ashurst, said: 'The case was given to my mother when we were in New York and she brought it back with us.

'It wasn't in too bad a condition and I used to take it away on holidays with me.

'When the wreck of Titanic was found 20 years ago I was invited to conventions all over the world and I took it with me then.'

Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers of Devizes, Wilts, said: 'The suitcase is a very emotive and unusual item and epitomises what the people of New York did for the Titanic survivors.

Titianic survivor Millvina Dean has been forced to sell items - including this print of the ship with her signature - to raise funds to pay for longterm care in a Hampshire nursing home

'It also highlights what state the survivors were in when they got to New York. Many people lost everything down to the clothes they were standing in.

'The letters give us an interesting insight in to what happened to the families and how the benevolent funds were given out.

'The prints are rare, limited edition prints. Realising she was one of the last survivors of the Titanic the artists sent them to her to sign and she kept hold of a couple of them.'

The frames prints include the Titanic leaving the White Star dock in Southampton and one of it arriving in Cherbourg.

The collection of letters dates 1912 from the Titanic Relief Fund to Mrs Dean explain that she will be awarded one pound, seven shillings and six pence per week.

Miss Dean said: 'My mother didn't really speak about the disaster because she was broken-hearted, she had been married to my father for four years and he was a very handsome man.

'When she married my stepfather it was rather awkward for her to speak about it.'